An Augmented Aging Process in Brain White Matter in HIV

T. Kuhn; T. Kaufmann; N.T. Doan; L.T. Westlye; J. Jones; R.A. Nunez; S.Y. Bookheimer; E.J. Singer; C.H. Hinkin; A.D. Thames

There are limitations of the current study worth noting. First, the cross-sectional nature of this study hinders our ability to make inferences about the rates of neuroanatomic changes in HIV. Importantly, this limited our ability to determine whether our findings relate to a more static, vestigial process which adds to or augments the aging process in HIV, or whether in fact these results are related to a dynamic, accelerated aging process. This is an important distinction and clinically meaningful question, particularly as the HIV+ population continues to age in the post-HAART era, and must be addressed using a longitudinal model. A recent longitudinal publication 45 demonstrated that HIV+ participants demonstrated greater predicted brain age than HIV-controls when analyzed at cross-section. However, when followed longitudinally, . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/265199 doi: bioRxiv preprint the HIV+ and HIV-groups evidenced comparable rates of change in neuroimaging markers, suggesting that, when receiving successful treatment, people living with HIV are not at risk for accelerated brain aging over two years. Longer longitudinal studies will help clarify whether or not this pattern remains steady over time.